


Lies don't hurt

by Avasha



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, Heavy Angst, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Suicide, Suicide Attempt, Triggers, Why Did I Write This?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-20
Updated: 2019-04-20
Packaged: 2020-01-20 17:16:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18529582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Avasha/pseuds/Avasha
Summary: Adrien rejects Marinette because of how she treats Lila. Inspired from Apex-primis's post/ficlet on Tumblr.Full thread: https://futuristicallymysticaldream.tumblr.com/post/184303164918/i-think-the-worse-way-adrien-could-reject





	1. The reckoning

**Author's Note:**

> Trigger warning. I'm not kidding. I saw this on another fanfic and liked it.
> 
> "It's gonna get a whole lot worse before it gets better."
> 
> I haven't decided if it will end yet. Are the tags right? Idk, guess we'll find out together.

She made it to her house before her emotions poured out. Tears spilling over the edge as she hugged her pillow. While she considered calling Alya, she had a sick feeling she would agree with Adrien. Who was she to not forgive someone? That wasn't like her at all. No wonder Adrien hated her. She was a horrible person. Lila's lies weren't hurting anyone but her. Who was she to risk others? Tikki tried to calm her down. She stroked her hair and wiped away tears, but it wasn't helping. "I just want to be alone right now Tikki." The pillow muffling her voice as she held it to her face.

"Marin–” Tikki’s voice cut off as Marinette took her earrings off. She placed them on the counter.

“Maybe some fresh air will help.” She thought as she climbed unto her roof. The hatch clicked and she sat on top of it. Her parents would try to talk to her, and she really didn’t want to hear that everything will be fine. Because it wasn’t. She SLAPPED Adrien. She really was just a bully. This coaxed out more tears and she gasped for air through the sobs.

It must have been hours, because the sun was starting to set. She had stopped crying, but she still didn’t feel better. Standing up off the hatch, she went over to the railing and looked over the city. A flicker of movement in the skyline caught her attention. The silhouette of Chat Noir was coming over to her.

She quickly wiped her face, and barely got herself in a presentable state before he landed next to her.

“Hey purrincess,” he noticed her red eyes, and his eyes grew big, “what’s wrong?” He drew her into a hug, but she didn’t hug him back.

“It’s just stress from school. Don’t worry about.” She said dismissively.

“If you’re upset, you’re at risk to be akumatized. Maybe if you talk about what’s stressing you out, you’ll feel better?” He offered.

She turned towards the city and looked out, sighing. “I guess. It’s just, there’s this guy. I thought he was smart and kind and I honestly thought he would understand my feelings and what I’ve been going through. Instead, I got rejected. And that hurt, of course, but what hurt more was why he didn’t like me.” She was still staring at the city, but dropped her gaze to the sidewalk and watched people milling about. “He said I was a bully. And... I guess he’s right. Exposing someone for telling lies when "no one"  is affected by them, and putting them at risk to be akumatized is a thing a bully would do. I just thought that maybe he could see the lies did affect someone. It’s stupid, really, because I’m supposed to be their ‘Everyday Ladybug’ and she doesn’t have problems like this. She doesn’t let lies about her affect her. She keeps a cool head and solves the problem. She knows the right thing to do, even if it’s hard. But I guess I just can’t be her.”

She paused.

“If I’m supposed to be an Everyday Ladybug, I can’t let lies affect how I act. I have to keep my feelings to myself so others don’t get hurt,” she glanced at Chat Noir and saw his surprised face, her head dropped again. A small pitiful chuckle escaped. She turned around, leaned on the railing, and looked at her feet.

“Do you know I’ve almost been akumatized three times?” She gave him a small sideways glance, not lifting her head. He was still looking at the city, but his hands were wringing themselves.

“Once for Chloe, when she ruined my gift. Once for Adrien and Kagami. And once for when I tried to kill myself.” She fell silent for a second.

“I have yet to be akumatized, as you know, but that doesn’t mean I don’t struggle with it. Everytime I see something that makes me mad, I have to remind myself that Ladybug doesn’t get upset. She can’t or the akuma will win. So I push the emotions deep within myself and try to be level headed for everyone else. But when lies are told about me, and Adrien says that no one is affected, I start cracking. I guess it wasn’t school, so much as friends, huh?”

Chat Noir looked at her, an incredulous look on his face. He looked like he wanted to say sorry, but he shook his head and sighed.

“Good job,” Marinette’s stomach sunk and started squirming. “Lila is really dangerous, we can’t let her get akumatized again. She’s lying and that sucks, but at least you have your emotions under control. Besides, we have Ladybug, so if your emotions get on top of you, she can fix it." This time he paused.

"I  need to get back to patrol, and it seems you’re going to be fine.” Her eyes stung from the betrayal of what she thought was one of her friends.

She took a big, silent breath before looking up and smiling at him.“Yep! I feel a lot better now. Thanks for stopping by. You should probably go back to patrol. I have homework to get done anyways.”

He got his stick out and prepared to leave, “Bye!”

She watched him leap away and pretended to go inside until he was out of sight. Once he was, she collapsed. Her partner sided with Lila, even after she tried to tell him she was hurting. She struggled to get control of her emotions before an akuma came, but with a part of her wanting to get akumatized, she failed. A small black butterfly with a purple haze flew next to her, trying to find a place to land on.

She pulled out Adrien’s good luck charm and held it out for the akuma. It landed and suddenly her head was much clearer.

“Hawkmoth, don’t you tire of trying to get me? What would I even be called?” She said, annoyed.

“While I am a little annoyed you haven’t succumbed to my efforts before, I feel this one will be the most powerful. And for your name? Why, it’s quite simple. It’s Marinette.” His voice dripped with charisma. He had learned manipulation didn’t work well on her, and instead replaced it with trying her patience with charm. Much like Chat Noir and Ladybug, but much sinister intentions. 

"Really? You aren’t creative enough to come up with a better one?”

“No. It’s your name because lies are what fueled your feelings. And what is a nickname, but a lie?”

"Hawkmoth?”

"Yes ?”

“Shut up. I don’t want to be akumatized, and it’s not an issue for other people.” She brushed his thoughts away and dropped the charm. The butterfly, no longer in controlled, turned white and flew away. The charm lay on the ground and she wanted to destroy it or throw it away or something, but she just sighed and picked it up. Even though he hated her, she couldn’t find the strength to hate him. He meant to much to her, even after all of this.

After making sure everything was where it was supposed to be, she climbed back into her room and picked up her phone. She stared at Alya’s number for a second before setting her phone down. The Ladybug earrings seemed to stare tauntingly at her, and giving in to her guilt, she put them back on.

Tikki zoomed out, and opened her mouth to say something.

Marinette cut her off.

“Tikki, Spots on.”

Her voice was quiet, as Tikki swirled into the earrings. She needed to patrol.

~~~~~

The next day at school was basically the same as always. Except, Marinette sat in the back, trying to escape the presence of Adrien. Lila was all but too happy to sit next to him, forcing Nino and Alya to sit next to each other.

Marinette had called Alya afterwards, and said that Adrien rejected her because he liked someone else. Alya was ready to fight him, but Marinette told her to forget it. It would take a few days, but she just needed some time to herself.

Everyone in the class seemed to notice something was wrong, and wanted to talk about it. Chloe had even offered to sit next to Adrien instead, and let Lila sit in the back, but Marinette declined.

"It’s fine. They can sit wherever they would like to. After all, Lila has bad hearing and this could be an important lesson.” She waved her hand at her classmates, and they left her alone.

Unfortunately, by lunch, everyone “knew” what happened. Lila was “kind” enough to tell everyone exactly what happened to her and how she fixed Marinette. “She confessed to Adrien, and when he said he was already dating me, she threw a fit. She got akumatized, but I called Ladybug and she stopped her. It’s sad, really. She was so embarrassed about it, she ran home crying. She probably didn’t want to face everyone today, but I called her and we talked about it. I convinced her to come to school, so she wouldn’t miss the lesson. I just care about her so much.” Lila’s voice was dipped in honey and her classmates were drinking it all up.

Adrien didn’t say anything. He looked kind of surprised and embarrassed that everyone was looking at him, but he seemed to agree with Lila.

Marinette watched her lies from the stairs, and decided to go home. She couldn’t stand to look at her classmates anymore. She couldn’t stand hurting anyone anymore, so she took off to the bakery.

~~~~~

(Adrien’s Pov)

As he listened to what Lila was saying, his stomach was sinking. He noticed Marinette run out of the school and almost followed her. But he didn’t, after all, plenty of the classmates had been akumatized before, there was nothing embarrassing about it. And Lila wasn’t hurting anyone. In fact, she was sparing everyone from the fact Marinette was actually a bully.

He thought back to the conversation he had with her as Chat Noir. She had glossed over it yesterday, but suddenly, it’s all he could think about. His stomach twisted, and his heart started pounding.

He excused himself, saying his bodyguard was here to pick him up, and took off running.

His mind started gunning, “She has almost been akumatized three times. Three times!! No one knows about that, and she shared it with me. She was hurting from the lies Lila was telling, and I told her it was good she wasn’t telling anyone. I’m an idiot. She told me she tried to kill herself and was almost akumatized, and I applauded the fact she wasn’t. I can’t believe I called her a bully. I can’t believe I didn’t see she was hurting. I can’t believe I was disgusted with her for trying to stop her bully. I can’t believe I let Lila spew lies about her. Why didn’t she say anything earlier?”

“Wait, she did. She told me why. Because she is supposed to be our Everyday Ladybug. Of course she wouldn’t want to talk to me about why she’s hurting, I was causing it. But she trusted Chat and I blew it. I have to talk to her.” His feet were pounding against the pavement as he raced to the bakery. Hopefully, he wasn’t too late.

For what, well, he wasn’t sure yet. But he was expecting the worst.

He reached the bakery, and rushed to Marinette’s room. Her parents seemed to be out on errands. He opened the door and his eyes widened with shock.

Marinette was lying on her bed and a small red kwami was trying to shake her awake. There were stray pill bottles on her bedside table, and an akuma flying next to them, it seemed unsure if it should infect. Adrien rushed to her side to see if she was still breathing.

“Hey, Adrien, I know I shouldn’t reveal Ladybug’s identity, but you have to help her. She took a bunch of those pills and took her miraculous off. I felt her distress and mind start to drift, so I came out and she was like this. Please help her!” The kwami said through tears.

He was shocked.

HE called Ladybug a bully.

HE hurt her.

HE told her to keep her emotions in check.

HE caused this.

He was an idiot, and he was about to lose her.

“How?” He said, frantically looking at the bottles.

“Transform and bring her to the hospital. They might be able to pump her stomach. If that doesn’t work, transform as Ladybug and use lucky charm. It might be able to fix things.” She said quickly.

“Plagg, claws out!” he transformed and picked her up.

He was about to use his stick to call for Ladybug and paled. He couldn’t call her for help. Not anymore. He had to save her.

Carefully, he put her over his shoulder and in frantic leaps, made it to the hospital.

He rushed in and yelled, “Someone help!”

Doctors rushed over and asked him a bunch of questions. He didn’t know all of them, but tried his best. They got the stomach pump and started pumping. A saline drip was started to flush out to medicines in her blood.

“It’s still tough to say, but we think she’ll make it. It’s lucky you found her so fast.” The doctors said, each adding in their opinions.

He nodded and went outside.

“I can’t lose her. I can’t believe I pushed her that far.” He aid out loud, not expecting anyone to hear.

Alya was walking by, looking to talk to Marinette, and overhears him. “Pushed who to what?”

She said as she came closer. Chat Noir sunk down against the wall and put his head in his hands.

Alya sat down beside him, unsure how to comfort Paris’s superhero.

“Marinette tried to commit suicide,” he said softly, “We-I-They still don’t know if she’s going to make it.”

Alya gasped softly and pulled her knees up.

“I knew she was had some trouble before, but I didn’t know it was still a problem.” She said into her hands.

“It’s my fault. I told her it was good she didn’t let her anger get to her.”

“Why would you say that?”

“I-uh-I overheard her and Adrien’s conversation yesterday. She wanted to tell everyone about Lila’s lies and I-uh- Adrien told her she was a bully because the lies weren’t hurting anyone. She ran home. She was upset and I was patrolling and stopped in. She told me how the lies hurt her, but she didn’t tell anyone because she’s supposed to be an 'Everyday Ladybug” and Ladybug doesn’t let others get akumatized.“ He had dropped his hands and looked at them.

Alya looked at him and sighed angrily. "You really are stupid, huh?” She stood up and started walking inside before setting stopped. “What’s her room number?” She said with a cool anger.

“134”

She left without so much as a second glance.


	2. The Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien finds out if Marinette will live or not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning!!!!!!!!!!
> 
>  
> 
> It start off where I ended last time. Um...Still TRIGGER WARNING!!!!!!!!!! Same as last time. It’s shorter, but I wanted to get it out, so when I write chapter 3 and post it y’all are dying for it. If you don’t want to continue the journey, then it can end here, though you might be a little unsatisfied. So yeah...Enjoy. If you can. HAHAHA

He sat there for a long time. Dusk, and eventually, evening fell before anything happened. One of the doctors stepped outside to talk with him. He stood up and walked over, unsure of the news, because the doctor’s face wasn’t giving him anything.

“Hey, is there any news?” he said grasping for anything.

“I-um. Yes. There is some news,” the doctor wiped his sweaty face as Adrien looked at him expectantly. “The girl you brought in--”

“Her name is Marinette.”

“Right, sorry,” he was holding a clipboard, he had the information. So why didn’t he use her name. “Marinette has...passed away.” Chat’s-no...Adrien’s world crumbled to pieces. “I’m sorry for your loss.” The doctor placed a hand on Chat’s shoulder, trying to comfort him, but all he felt was a cheap imitation of Marinette’s warm, unconscious body.

He jerked his shoulder away, and turned away. The doctor seemed surprised, but only for a moment, before he went inside. Chat walked over behind the hospital, and after checking to make sure no one was there, he detransformed.

“Tikki, where are the earrings?” He whispered, not being able to have any emotion other shock.

She flew out of his pocket, carrying one earring. Plagg had the other one.

“Right here,” She placed hers on his opened palm. He put it in before grabbing Plagg’s. It hurt, putting the earrings in his unpierced, but after what he did, he knew he deserved it.

“What’s the transformation phrase?”

“Spots on”

“Tikki, spots on.” His transformation was solemn, his head down. After he finished it, there was a sharp pain in his head.

“Take the ring off, you doofus. The creation and destruction miraculous don’t mix well.” Plagg’s scratchy voice said from...somewhere.

Adrien-no-Tainted Rose tugged it off, and dropped it to the floor. Someone else could be Chat for all he cared.

“Lucky Charm!” A pot fell into his waiting hands.

“Oh,” he said disappointed, “Do I make some tea for her?”

Plagg flew up to his face, “It means to go to Master Fu, stupid. Remember the last time she got a pot?”

“Where is he?” He was staring at the pot.

“Follow me. But don’t forget to pick up my ring. Just because you’re an idiot doesn’t mean I want a different kitten.” He started flying in, what Tainted Rose had to assume was, the direction of Master Fu.

~~~~~

After an hour or so trip they arrived at a inconspicuous shop. Plagg had to make sure they weren’t being tracked by Hawkmoth. Adrien stepped inside. If Tainted Rose were to visit, that would draw unwanted attention.

“Hello? Master Fu?” he called.

“Ah, Adrien, what brings you here?” the small man said.

“A lucky charm. Mine to be specific.” He held out Ladybug’s earrings.

“What happened to Ladybug, that she wasn’t able to come here herself?” He took the earrings, and started walking to a back room. He waved a hand, gesturing Adrien to follow him. They entered and sat down on mats.

“She--Uh--Marinette--killed herself.” His voice broke, “I followed Tikki’s suggestion and tried a Lucky Charm to see if it could help, but it just gave me a pot. Plagg said it meant to go to you. So here we are.” He said quickly before tears started leaking from his eyes. Furious with himself, he started wiping his tears away roughly.

“I see.”

There was a few moments of silence, both unsure of what to say.

“Thank you for bringing me the Ladybug Miraculous. I’ll find a new owner as soon as I can.” he said simply. Adrien just nodded.

He didn’t want a new Ladybug, but he knew he didn’t get a say in it. Hawkmoth would put it together pretty quick if he noticed Marinette’s death and the disappearance of Ladybug. For a moment, he considered giving back his Miraculous. But it would be selfish to force two inexperienced heroes to fight Hawkmoth. He was getting stronger, and people would notice if their beloved heroes were replaced.   
“I’ll...go now. I have to go tell her parents.” He walked out of the shop and towards the Dupain-Cheng’s bakery. They’re best in the world, no matter what Lila said. Despite what he caused.

**Author's Note:**

> Told you. Also, there might be some typos or grammar issues, I'm sorry. I was going to fix it, but then I just... Didn't. So yeah!


End file.
